[goldstategop]

The novel's about the Xindi super-weapon. The dedication to Cindy Sheehan strikes me as odd or more rather ironic: you can't stop evil merely with soothing words. Evil, whether it comes from Islamofascists of today or the Xindi of Star Trek's future, has to be stopped with force. There's no place for pacifists in free societies, for the uncritical pursuit of peace at any price gets every one killed.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

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From what I read of the book, it's about conflict between the peaceful, Starfleet explorers and the military officers (MACOs) who come along to do the Federation's dirty work. It's blatantly anti-military, so it's no wonder they dedicated it to Cindy.

Now, they're gonna cry that they have the freedom to dedicate the book to whoever they want to, and that's certainly true. But by the same token, if I disagree with that, I don't have to buy the book!

[spinestein]

[There's no place for pacifists in free societies, for the uncritical pursuit of peace at any price gets every one killed.]


Very true.

With regard to the politics of Star Trek (especially TNG) "The Prime Directive" always irritated me. It commands that all alien societies are entitled to their way of life without interference from The Federation. Many episodes ended with "The Enterprise" leaving a planet after they stand by and allow some atrocity to take place in the name of "All cultural practices are equally moral" while they tut-tut about how it's too bad that such things have to happen.